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According to normal law, an employer is free to provide employment to any person he may choose to employ. However, there are a few restrictions to this.

There may be a breach of statutory requirements if the employer discriminates against any person on the basis of sex, marital status, religion, race, sexual orientation, age, disability, trade union membership, part time work or fixed term work.

When we talk of work discrimination, the plight of working mothers has reached to very high levels of inequality in the United Kingdom. According to campaigners against this discrimination, the problem can only be resolved by making sure that fathers learn to balance work with familial responsibilities. In fact, women with young children are the most likely to face situations of work discrimination. As some surveys have pointed out, single mothers with children aged less than 11 are 45% less likely to get a job than a man having a partner. Likewise, women with partners have 40% less chances of getting employed than men who are in relationships.

Unfortunately, women suffer because of outdated attitudes in the UK. There is a general perception that mothers make less reliable workers. It is important for businesses to retain women even after having children. It is wrong to conclude that women do not make good workers the moment they have children. What most businesses do not realize is that each year more than £30 billion worth of human talent gets wasted because of this work discrimination against working mothers, disabled people and women in general.

According to the Equal Opportunities Commission which has for long championed the cause of work discrimination faced by pregnant women and working mothers, the solution does not lie in just providing greater work flexibility for women. In fact as per an EOC research, more than 75% of the people have said that things must be made easier for men as well to take time off for caring responsibilities. Probably the real solution lies in extending the right to request for flexible work to both men and women at the workplace.

Coming back to the core issue of work discrimination, the UK discrimination law is greatly influenced by the EC law. In fact, you will find this in almost all areas of the discrimination law. Take for instance, sexual discrimination. You will find the influence of EC law. According to the Equal Treatment Directive (75/207), there shall be no work discrimination, either directly or indirectly on the basis of sex, marital or family status, training, working conditions, promotions, in access to employment and dismissal. In the United Kingdom, the Directive by way of the Sex Discrimination Act make it completely unlawful to discriminate against women and men, married persons or those who intend to or have undergone gender reassignment or pregnant women or those women who are on statutory maternity leave or intend to take one.

In the United Kingdom, there are four kinds of discrimination at work place that are considered unlawful as per the UK legislation. These include direct or indirect discrimination, victimization and harassment. This means it is very important to understand what an unlawful act of discrimination is. At the workplace, the following are considered as unlawful acts of discrimination: recruitment, promotion and dismissal, harassment and post employment discrimination.

For instance, it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person for the purpose of determining who should be employed. Likewise, it is considered work discrimination if an employer makes any changes in the terms of employment based on sex, age, race, religion or sexual orientation. It is also considered to be unlawful if the employer either refuses or deliberately omits to provide employment to a person based on race, religion, sex, age, disability or marital status

Likewise, it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person and deny opportunities for promotion, training or transfer or other benefits, services or facilities. It is also unlawful act to arbitrarily dismiss or subject an employee to any kind of discrimination.

Further, it is unlawful for an employer to subjects to harassment a person who is either in employment with the employer or applies for an employment. Lastly, it is unlawful to discriminate against a former worker either by way of harassment or causing any other kinds of detriments.